National News

LETHAL WEAPON: Sniper deployed in Afghanistan kills six Taliban with one bullet

A British sniper deployed in Afghanistan made a Hollywood-worthy shot last December after the bullet he fired at a Taliban suicide bomber struck the device’s trigger and detonated, killing another five surrounding Taliban insurgents.

The unnamed 20-year-old lance corporal from the Coldstream Guards struck his target from 930 yards out in the Kakaran region of southern Afghanistan. The event was only recently disclosed as Britain prepares to withdraw all of its combat troops from the country by the end of 2014, The Telegraph reports.

“The guy was wearing a vest. He was identified by the sniper moving down a tree line and coming up over a ditch,” a Lt. Col. Slack told the Telegraph. “He had a shawl on. It rose up and the sniper saw he had a machine gun.”

“They were in contact and he was moving to a firing position. The sniper engaged him and the guy exploded. There was a pause on the radio and the sniper said, ‘I think I’ve just shot a suicide bomber.’ The rest of them were killed in the blast,” Slack said.